A bench of the High Court comprising Chief Justice L Narsimha Reddy and Justice Vikas Jail stayed the Bihar Vidhan Sabha Secretary's letter on the instruction of the Speaker declaring Kumar the JD(U) Legislature Party Leader. The judges said the letter would not be operative.

The High Court observed that the letter of the secretary, Hare Ram Mukhiya, had "no legal consequences at this stage."

In a legislators meet on Saturday, JD(U) had sacked Jitan Ram Manjhi and elected Nitish Kumar as new legislative party leader.

Altogether 97 JD(U) MLAs and 37 members of state Council were present in the said meeting.

The assembly Speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhury had later nominated Nitish Kumar as Party Legislature Leader in the House.

Challenging Nitish Kumar’s appointment a JD(U) MLA from Karakat assembly constituency Rajeshwar Raj had filed a petition in the Patna High Court. Raj is one of those party MLAs who are supporting Manjhi in the power tussle.

Aiming to put pressure on Bihar Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi for inviting him to form the next government in the state, former chief minister Nitish Kumar reached New Delhi on Tuesday to parade the legislators supporting him at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Wednesday.

Nitish Kumar and 130 legislators supporting him left for New Delhi in two batches.